Fasting
There is false teaching going around regarding fasting and reaching for more of the kingdom of God on earth. The false teaching falls along the lines of
"We are already the habitation of God...totally filled by Him...don't try to get into His presence by praise and worship, fasting and prayer repetition. He came into us and will never leave, nor forsake or fail us. Fasting is like a hunger strike to God that He doesn't require"
This is simply unBiblical. This sort of teaching reflects that the teacher doesn't understand the three-fold process of renewal the Bible calls "justification" (getting saved), sanctification (getting set apart in obedience to His word over time), and Glorification (getting a new body at the resurrection). This is false teaching designed to steal from the process of sanctification, or the renewing of the heart.
Philippians 2:12-13 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
This sort of teaching is what grows out of a false grace mentality....that mistakenly assumes getting "saved" is all you have to do to inherit all that Jesus has. You gotta "work out your salvation"...that means there is stuff to do.
Sadly, the Bible is becoming less and less used as a standard for evaluating teaching that sounds good. I see many people repeating false teaching because it sounds "freeing"...it isn't freeing, it is truly the "shackles-of-self" packaged in Biblical language. I don't correct this teaching out of bitterness or judgmental-ism, but rather love. Reaching for "more of God" is basic Christianity. The Sermon on the Mount is entirely about reaching to be more like Jesus over time.
Fasting is actually "Christianity 101." In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught how His disciples would fast in the future:
Matthew 6:16-18 "Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 17 But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
The fasting Jesus was teaching wasn't for that hour but later, AFTER the resurrection. Jesus was really clear about when this fasting would begin and why:
Matthew 9:14-15 Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?" 15 And Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
The fasting Christians do isn't a "hunger strike," it is a voluntary putting off of comfort. Comfort dulls the heart, and fasting rips that worldly comfort off for a minute in order to feel the discomfort the rest of creation feels. We live in an ultra comfortable culture. The false teaching about having "all of God already" is designed...custom made... to make dull people stay dull and unfilled by God. All of creation is groaning for the people of God to get "un dull"...to be revealed as sons still separated from the full face-to-face experience of being with God, and actually NOT being ok with that separation:
Romans 8:18-23 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. 23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
Teaching that gives you comfort to do nothing to hasten the return of Jesus because he is "already here," is the spirit of Antichrist. Don't fall for it. It goes against everything the Bible teaches:
2 Peter 3:10-13 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
"We are already the habitation of God...totally filled by Him...don't try to get into His presence by praise and worship, fasting and prayer repetition. He came into us and will never leave, nor forsake or fail us. Fasting is like a hunger strike to God that He doesn't require"
This is simply unBiblical. This sort of teaching reflects that the teacher doesn't understand the three-fold process of renewal the Bible calls "justification" (getting saved), sanctification (getting set apart in obedience to His word over time), and Glorification (getting a new body at the resurrection). This is false teaching designed to steal from the process of sanctification, or the renewing of the heart.
Philippians 2:12-13 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
This sort of teaching is what grows out of a false grace mentality....that mistakenly assumes getting "saved" is all you have to do to inherit all that Jesus has. You gotta "work out your salvation"...that means there is stuff to do.
Sadly, the Bible is becoming less and less used as a standard for evaluating teaching that sounds good. I see many people repeating false teaching because it sounds "freeing"...it isn't freeing, it is truly the "shackles-of-self" packaged in Biblical language. I don't correct this teaching out of bitterness or judgmental-ism, but rather love. Reaching for "more of God" is basic Christianity. The Sermon on the Mount is entirely about reaching to be more like Jesus over time.
Fasting is actually "Christianity 101." In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught how His disciples would fast in the future:
Matthew 6:16-18 "Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 17 But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
The fasting Jesus was teaching wasn't for that hour but later, AFTER the resurrection. Jesus was really clear about when this fasting would begin and why:
Matthew 9:14-15 Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?" 15 And Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
The fasting Christians do isn't a "hunger strike," it is a voluntary putting off of comfort. Comfort dulls the heart, and fasting rips that worldly comfort off for a minute in order to feel the discomfort the rest of creation feels. We live in an ultra comfortable culture. The false teaching about having "all of God already" is designed...custom made... to make dull people stay dull and unfilled by God. All of creation is groaning for the people of God to get "un dull"...to be revealed as sons still separated from the full face-to-face experience of being with God, and actually NOT being ok with that separation:
Romans 8:18-23 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. 23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
Teaching that gives you comfort to do nothing to hasten the return of Jesus because he is "already here," is the spirit of Antichrist. Don't fall for it. It goes against everything the Bible teaches:
2 Peter 3:10-13 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
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